“There’s the Bell Curve of a career. The data is being redefined. Age brackets pre-expansion were older… The slower game allowed longer careers. Now, the maturity of young players, with strength coaches at age 15. It’s tending to a younger man’s game every year.

There’s anomalies to all of this; every player says they are the anomaly… That’s what makes them great. But young players are driving the bus at an earlier age of their career.”

Translation: It’s time to go young, and St. Louis is ready to embrace it.

Those were telling words from a franchise often identified by its veteran leaders.

And Tarasenko isn’t the only youngster looking at an increased role.

Gone from last year’s team are Chris Porter, Zbynek Michalek, Marcel Goc, Olli Jokinen and, most notably, two of the most prominent Blues — Barret Jackman and T.J. Oshie. If there’s one thing that linked these guys together, it’s age; Oshie is the youngest of the crew, and he turns 29 in December.

St. Louis has been stockpiling draft prospects for years, and this could be the time for some to break through: Ty Rattie, Robby Fabbri, Jordan Schmaltz and Ivan Barbashev, all top-35 picks, will get their looks to varying degrees, and Dmitri Jaskin — the 22-year-old Czech winger that scored 13 times last year — and Finnish d-man Petteri Lindbohm will try and take stronger holds on roster spots.

In fact, the development of some of these kids could have a profound impact on another Blues veteran — team captain David Backes.

“I can tell you right now, (Backes) is going to play more right wing than he’s played since I got here. Whether he’s a full-time player there or not, we don’t know yet. That depends on those three young kids.”

“I think in every sport if you’re strong up the middle you’re usually a strong team,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said, per Yahoo Sports. “The center icemen seem to be the catalyst, usually offensively. They’re the guys who have the puck the most and make maybe the most decisions on the ice based on the number of touches they have in a game.”

The Blues are obviously a strong team. Their regular-season record is proof of that. But they haven’t been able to win that elusive Cup, so it’s only natural to pore over their roster in search of why.

Their lack of a truly elite center — and this goes for good teams like the Wild, Predators, Canadiens, Rangers, and Jets — may be as good an answer as any.

To refresh your memory, the Blues’ goaltending soap opera was alive and well in 2014-15. Veteran Brian Elliott went into the season as the No. 1. Yada, yada, yada, by late March, less than a month to go until the postseason, he still was.

It did not go well for Allen in the playoffs. The youngster finished the six-game loss to the Wild with a .904 save percentage, leaving Hitchcock to defend his decision during yet another lengthy offseason for the club.

“I get the fact there were three goals that went in that were ugly,” the coach said. “That’s the growth of a young player.”

Hitchcock continued, “We got two guys who are more than capable of carrying the load here. I think goaltending is going to be our strength moving forward. We’ve got a young guy emerging and a veteran guy who’s on top of his game right now and playing the best of his career.”

In five seasons as general manager of the St. Louis Blues, Doug Armstrong has seen his team win a grand total of one playoff series. That lone victory came in 2012, over San Jose, before getting swept by the Kings. Since then, the Blues have been eliminated three straight times in the first round.

Not that Armstrong’s been a total failure at the job — far from it. The Blues have been an excellent regular-season team. In 2011-12, Armstrong was named the NHL’s GM of the year. And such is his stellar reputation that he’ll be Team Canada’s architect for the 2016 World Cup.

But after yet another postseason disappointment in St. Louis, Armstrong recognized that changes needed to be made.

“We entered a window four years ago, and the window doesn’t stay open forever,” he said in April.

Hence, the decisions to trade T.J. Oshie and let Barret Jackman go to free agency. Next season, the Blues will rely more on their younger players like 23-year-olds Vladimir Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz.

“We’re trying to meld two generations into one,” Armstrong told Sportsnet radio in July, “but we’re also asking that younger generation to no longer to sit in the back seat and to jump up and grab the wheel.”

So, expect to see those younger players in more key situations next season, whereas before it would’ve been up to the David Backes era to close out one-goal games with a minute left.

But listening to the Sportsnet interview, it wasn’t hard to feel Armstrong’s mounting frustration at having so much regular-season success, with so little playoff glory.

“That’s one of the things I like about the European football or soccer. They put a lot of pride in their regular-season championship as they do in their playoff championship,” he said.

“But that’s not the world we live in here in North America. You can be the L.A. Kings and finish seventh and finish eighth and win Cups and thought of as a great team, or you can be the Blues with the best record in hockey over the last four years and lose in the first round and people quite honestly think you’re bums.”

“In our society, championships are what we’re judged on and that’s what we have to try and win.”

It feels like change is in the air for the St. Louis Blues, but that doesn’t have to be a (completely) bad thing.

During a fork-in-the-road phase for the Blues, a few young players have a chance to kick in the door, and Robby Fabbri may just lead that charge.

A few weeks ago, head coach Ken Hitchcock went far enough to say that the progress of Fabbri, Ty Rattie and Dmitrij Jaskin may just influence the course of the future for captain David Backes.

Lofty stuff? Sure, but the 19-year-old told NHL.com that a roster spot is exactly what he’s aiming for.

“I like to set my goals high,” Fabbri said. “Getting there as soon as possible is one of my goals. I’ve been here working hard with [Blues strength and conditioning coach] Nelson [Ayotte] and the trainers to make sure I’m ready and to make that possible. Obviously I’d like to (make the team), but it’s a big step.

The 21st pick of the 2014 draft actually made a lot of noise in 2014-15, even generating some preseason buzz.

Nothing about his past season gives much pause about his ability to generate offense, undoubtedly something the Blues seek. He scored 51 points in 30 OHL games for the Guelph Storm and managed four points in three games with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves.

He’s young, obviously, and most players take more than a year to jump to the NHL. Things could change quickly if Fabbri has a strong training camp.